Readers comments.

Hi Jerry ( Adventures of The Paper Bats),
This is brilliant. love it when books point out obvious and everyday things to children and then turn them in to something magical. This book does exactly that and I can see this being adored by children all over. I have a granddaughter who insists on me reading anything to her. Not yet three year old, I just know she will love the Paper Bat characters and even better if it’s a series. Best wishes mate. get them published quick, I need them now!

Hi Jerry,
It`s very sweet and I think the illustrations will bring this lovely story to life. This is a very visual piece of writing, I can already picture the tiny paperbats, with their fragile wings and fury bodies. Jack is a lovely character, the joy he takes in discovering the talking paperbats is charming. Overall, I really enjoyed the read (despite my advancing years).
Cheryl R. [77 years young].

It’s a cute little story and one I can easily imagine a parent reading to a child until they are old enough to read it themselves. Imaginative and goes at a pace which will be easy for children to follow.
I hope you do well with this.

I hadn’t expected to come across such a great children’s book when I was surfing around. Then, it’s not the first thing on this site to have caught me off guard. Your book succeeds in sparking the imagination of children of all ages. I love the use of ordinary objects animated by a mere shift in perspective, objects that otherwise go overlooked. It’s really a nice story.

What a lovely little book- I looked at your website illustarations too- absolutely gorgeous!
I used to work in a small community library and would have loved to read this to the littles ones there.
Hope more people get to see it.

This is just delightful. I was a little reluctant to read it because I was afraid it would be too cute and precious but as it turns out it’s just cute and precious enough for my tastes and I think young children will enjoy it very much. Jack’s first identification of a paper bat is well done and that’s the hook that will keep readers interested. I hope this gets published

ADVENTURES OF THE PAPER BATS
Hello Jerry.
Thank you for asking me to comment on your childrens’ novel. I have read the chapters you’ve posted here and you have imagined quite a delightful saga of tales to suit children (around 8 years upwards I would guess). The idea of the paper bats is wonderful; I could see the metamorphosis from newspaper to a little 10cm bat complete with pointy ears and featherylike hair from paper. Quite delightful. Your use of the newspaper names is very clever and could easily be more exploited – tele – dressed in blue – the telegraph traditionally being a Conservative paper whose colour is blue and so on. Maybe add more names from other countries ie foreign visitors perhaps over on holiday or having to adjust to another country due to climate change?
The theme is magical and each separate story is of a length that is conducive for a bedtime story – not too long or too short. Then you have the theme concerning being kind and proper towards animals and in this instance parklands. I cannot fault the concept. Well done!

I love the idea of these stories. I grew up on the Wombles, and I think you have captured a similar spirit – you are continuing this storytelling tradition, rather than repeating it. Your storytelling technique also reminds me of The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. The idea of bats made of paper is magical and beautiful and some really good illustrations could pull the story off the page. I would hope the story would suit children young enough to be read to (I imagine my 5-year-old is just about old enough to start enjoying this) and also older children who can curl up on their own and read it. There are some typos and things that need fixing, but that doesn’t detract from the overall quality of the storytelling. I wish you success, both for your sake and for the real-life bats (some of which, incidentally, live in my parents’ loft 🙂 )

Jerry,
Really original story. Like it very much. I think you need more action at the beginning and a little less of the 3rd person story telling.
I like how all the bats are named after newspapers and it brings a bit of the wombles into it with the french nanny.
Very very clever. Can see it very clearly all the bats have their own personalities too.
Thanks for inviting me to read the book.
🙂
Diana Johns [Hamilton Publishing, USA]

Hi Jerry
What a good idea. I think I probably look at this from a more adult point of view than your target audience, although I am often accused of being childish. However for me I wouldn’t refer to Sunny as a Paper Bat until he coins the name his self. On the subject of names the are everything in almost all writing, even if only to fix an image in the writers head. In this case your use of the newspapers is an inspiration